Hunting for History in Potam Pueblo: A Yoeme (Yaqui) Indian Deer Dancing Epistemology

Based on fieldwork with the Yoeme (Yaqui) Indians of northwest Mexico, this article traces the ties between contemporary deer dances and pre-colonial deer-hunting rituals. The author claims that indigenous performances provide documentary evidence not only of intercultural dynamics but also of how native people think historically about those dynamics. The essay details how, in Yoeme deer dancing, community members demonstrate collective identity as well as ontological and epistemological sensibilities. Additionally, it re-assesses the ethnohistoric utility of the term “conversion” when writing about colonial and missionary contact zones. As a research model, this project demonstrates the central role of performance studies within the field of folklore.     

The Silversmith's Workshop of Tira Del Lienzo (Totana,Murcia) In The Context of Iberian Bronze Age Metallurgy

The south‐east of the Iberian Peninsula saw deep social and political changes at the dawn of the second millennium bce . The emergence of important economic asymmetries inside communities was apparently based to a large extent on control of the secondary metallurgical production process; namely, forging. In this sense, the recently excavated architectural complex at the Argaric site of Tira del Lienzo constitutes an exceptional finding. At this site a series of macrolithic artefacts were recorded, which were related to the forging of metals and, more specifically, to the working of silver, according to morpho‐technological and functional studies (use‐wear and residue analysis).     

After Crossroads: The Fate of the Atomic Bomb Target Fleet

The atomic tests at Bikini Atoll left a submerged archaeological legacy in the form of sixty-one shipwrecks at or near Bikini, Kwajalein, the California coast, and in two other lesser cases off Oahu and the coast of Washington State. Together they comprise a unique maritime cultural landscape of the Cold War, and the naval aspects of that conflict.     

The Paths of the European Conquest of the Atlantic: Osteological Evidence of Warfare and Violence in Gran Canaria (XV Century)

European expansion in the Atlantic in the Late Middle Ages often implied the use of violence, involving tactics and weaponry unknown to some of the affected populations. Among the first places to suffer this violence were the Canary Islands, whose conquest lasted the whole of the 15th century. Documentary information about this historical episode is abundant, whereas archaeological evidence testifying to it is very rare. However, an individual from an indigenous funerary context of Gran Canaria (placed in a collective burial cave and wrapped in a shroud made of vegetable fibres) displays a large number of wounds, both on his skull and on the rest of the skeleton, probably caused by swords, suggesting a mortal attack conducted by one or more aggressors. Based on the study of injuries, it is considered a potential explanation of their origin, concluding that most likely this case may be associated with the process of the conquest of the Island. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.